Public Study

Guideline
Pari Island

October 2013

Contents
Part I
Human and Conservation
Filling the Gap 4
Shifting Behavior 6
Marine Conservation Issue 8
Part II
Action Research
Overview 10
Steps 11
Part III
Next Action Plan
Intervention Strategy 14
Appendix I: CNS Scale 15
Appendix II: References 15
All pictures are private documentations of author.

Environmental management
is really a matter of

managing people
rather than the biophysical environment.
[Alan Miller]

Part I
Human and Conservation

Filling the Gap

Human beings are intelligent creatures
that capable to make an abstract formulation inside his mind. They can produce
any conception from a simple question
and develop it into a big system such as
culture, education, machine, even religion
and God conception. Abstract thinking
capability also helps human beings in
imagining future and creating something
that currently not exist including imagining the extinction of other species. That
imagination makes us learn how to prevent the extinction, thus the awareness to
conservation is the key of conservation.
Tikka, Kuitunen, and Tynys (2000) found
that educational background of students
has a significant effect on their attitudes
toward nature and environment. Their
study revealed that Biology students have
the biggest positive attitudes (M= 2.424),
greatest level of knowledge, and participated in many nature-related activity,
whereas students who studied Economies (M= 1.923) and Technology-related
(M= 1.746) adopted a more negative attitude towards nature and environment.
Psychology students adopted second
biggest positive attitude (M= 2.150) and in
third place, students from Forestry studies
(M= 2.145).

But there is a gap between two sciences

that should contribute in conservation
study area, the natural science especially Biology, and social science such
as Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology. Its a common thing that Biology students using biocentric (or ecologic) view
seeing life itself as the centre of life,
whereas Psychology students using anthropocentric view seeing human as the
centre of life. Hunter and Gibbs (2007)
explained how biocentric view doesnt
stands opposite the anthropocentric view,
but as two poles in a continuum. They
argue that we have to shift more toward
to biocentric view from anthropocentric
view, but never forget the anthropocentric
one in order to understanding human behavior and how to change it. Human factor is an important thing to be learnt in
doing conservation.

Picture 1.1
Mangrove in Pari Island

th

In October 28 , 1978 Tempo published

the illegal trade of orangutan and other
endangered species, argued that human
do the trade simply because they dont
know why they have to put a concern on
animals and conservation, since it has no
direct impact to their life (Tempo, 1978).
Currently, illegal trading of endangered
animals still happens even in big city. The
gap that conservation experts havent
has a successful strategy in building
awareness should be bridged by social
science, especially psychology that studies behavior. At the end, the great power
to prevent the extinction of other species
is laid in humans hand. Rather than debating on which is the best between biocentric and anthropocentric, why dont
we stand between those views and use it
both in conserving nature?

Picture 1.2
Mangrove Forest Area in Pari Island

The conflict among anthropocentric versus biocentric view is also happened

when Jane Goodall, a primatologist and
also an anthropologist presented her
work in Gombe. The panel said that everything she had done was wrong, especially the point when she called the chimpanzees with personified names. But she
gave us an insight, that by time we interact with animals, well realize that they
have personality just like human beings.

Shifting Behavior
The complexity of human behavior cant
be explained only within this booklet, so
lets just talk about human behavior that
related to conservation attitude. There are
several explanations about humans personality and attitudes toward nature, but
author decided to take the Millers human
personality map toward conservation
(1999) and Kellert and Berrys human attitudes toward animals (1981, in Hunter &
Gibbs, 2007).
Miller (1999) explained that human has a
big delusion on naming themselves as
Homo sapiens, literally means Wise
Man, despite the fact that we are actually Homo pragmaticus myopic species
that incredibly good at solving problems in
a short term while creating more problems for a long term. He argued that
there are two important aspects of biophilia, so that human fully aware that they
have to put a big concern on environmental problem: intimacy with nature and
altruism. He then made 4 type of humans personality related to environmental
problem:
(1) Objective Analytic (OA) people
whose central concern on achievement
of a sense of power and control, empirical, reductionist, impersonal, and obsessive. The fact gatherer, but not actually
solving the problem.

(2) Objective Holistic (OH) they who

emphasizes on intuition, professional
judgment, and contextual knowledge,
attempt to impose a solution in a problem based on the best guess related
to complex situation. They prefer to
shape a good problem instead of solving it.
(3) Subjective Holistic (SH) people
that emphasizing intimate, nurturing relationship with other people and with
the surrounding environment, dependant but having a high level of empathy
so they actually know how to solve
environmental problem that caused by
human, the real romantic seeker.
(4) Subjective Analytic (SA) good at
deep introspective analysis so they understand themselves and others, but
having difficulty in summoning effective
defensive coping to environmental
problem. Natural philosopher and naturalist tend to be this type of person,
the mind healer.
By identifying those 4 types of personality, we can make a mapping whether the
majority of Pari Islands citizens are fully
aware of their environmental problems or
not.

Picture 1.3
Millers Personality Map

Further explanation comes from Kellert

and Berrys (1981, in Hunter & Gibbs,
2007). They found that there are 10
types of peoples attitude toward other
species, but author decided to take the
big 5 attitude types based on her previous initial observation in Pari Island:
Humanistic, tend to have a strong affection on other species because
their anthropomorphism to that species.
Neutralistic, avoid other species simply
because lack of interest.
Utilitarian, interested in practical value
of other species and their habitats.
Moralistic, concerned with environmental ethics and against overexploitation.
Naturalistic, showing interest in other
species and outdoor.

By identifying those 5 types of attitudes,

we can get a comprehensive conclusion
what kind of awareness strategy that will
be effective in Pari Island, and also get
the reason behind Pari Islands current
condition.
Shifting behavior from conservationignorance to fully aware must to be begun from changing values. Hunter and
Gibbs (2007) argued that there is two
main things that shape values toward
conservation, (1) information, and (2) experience. Individual with greatest knowledge will show a big tendency to be
aware of the importance of conservation
just like the research that found Biology
students has the biggest positive attitude
toward environment. Experience is also
importance, that is why people whose
activities in outdoor are more aware of
environmental problem. Information and
experience are both important, so when
we have known the degree of information
and experience owned by Pari Islands
citizen, well know their values and formulate the next action plan to shifting behavior from less aware of conservation to
fully aware of environmental problem.

Marine Conservation Issue

Indonesia, as an arhipelago nation consists of thousand islands that separated

by sea. Why ocean is important, (1) 500
millions people are getting money from
the sea to live, (2) fishes are the protein
source for 1 billion developing countries
citizens, (3) 76% coral species are found
in Southeast Asia and West Pacific seas,
(4) there are 400+ dead zone seas for
about 246,000 km2, (5) current fishing
has been 2x than scientifically suggested,
(6) more than 50% dead fishes in trap
are thrown back to the sea by human,
(7) 10 million tons of plastic bottles are
thrown away to the seas (Greenpeace,
2012). In addition, the gobal warming impacted the rise of sea level, and small island can be diseappear also Pari Island.

Based on previous authors interview with

one fisherman from Pari Island, there was
a conflict between LIPI and fishermans
about abalone shells (Haliotis asinina). The
fishermans harmed the coral reef by
searching for abalone by destroying the
coral. What is team need to be identified
is checking the issue, and probing what
happened behing the issue. Theres some
types of exploitation, (1) Commercial Exploitation, (2) Subsistence Exploitation, (3)
Recreational Exploitation, (4) Incidental Explotation, and (5) Indirect Exploitation
(Miller, 1999). The problem of Pari Island
are the (1), and (3). The most terrible
nightmare is if the commercial exploitation
shift to recreational exploitation without a
correct peoples understanding of conservation.

Pari Island is located in North Jakarta, estimated area is 40,32 hectares. There are
697 citizens in this island and they came
from many places such as Lampung,
Sulawesi, West and Central Java, and so
on. Before 2010, 90% of Pari Islands citizens worked as seaweed farmers. But,
following the death of their seas biodiversity. They shifted to tourism currently.

As Agardy (1997) noted, people usually

think that marine conservation issue is just
about coral reefs. Actually, it talks about
coast, wide variety of animals and plants.
They are interconnected communities.
Marine conservation concern must be
done by a comprehensive and integrative
study because the characteristic of human beings in small island will be so different in large island. Our challenge is not
only preserving the nature, but also inspiring the human.

If your eyes are strong, you may search the sky and
see him, wings aquiver, circling among the woolly clouds. If
your eyes are weak, dont try it; just watch the fence posts.
[Aldo Leopold]

Part II
Action Research

Picture 2.1
Perawan Beach, hundred years-old
mangrove forest area in Pari Island

Overview
Action research often used in educational
setting because it has main function to
assist us knowing the best intervention
strategy. The Alberta Teachers' Association (2000) described Action Research as
a collaboration between Qualitative
method and Quantitative method, and
has 4 ethical practices: ethics of hope,
caring, opennes, and responsibility, since
Action Research involving the researcher
into subjects daily activities. Since Action
Research is a merger of two methodologies, it has some characteristic like objective evaluation that has to be quantified,
but also flexible and contextual. Action research used to be done in a particular
area or place that have to be intervented.
The aim is initial analysis what kind of intervention that possibly match with the
problem found from the Action Research.

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Based on Somekh (2006), there are 8

basic principles of Action Research; integrates research and action, conducted
by a collaborative partnership and researcher, involves the development of
knowledge and understanding of unique
kind, starts from a vision of social transformation, involves a high level of reflexivity, involves exploratory engangement
with range of existing knowlegde, engenders powerful learning for participants
through combining research with reflection
on practice, and locates the inquiry in an
understanding of broader historical, political, and ideological context of the area.
For this current study, author decided to
use the Action Research with a quantitative scale but the data will be taken with
interview. Author and team will use CNS
(Connectedness to Nature Scale) that developed by Mayer and Frantz (2004) that
will be adapted to Bahasa Indonesia.
Within the interview, team will also explored and observed about the participants value, attitude, and personality toward environmental problem and conservation.

The Steps
Combining Action Researchs steps from
Somekh (2006) and The Alberta Teachers' Association (2000), the steps of this
study will be like this:
1. Select a focus to be studied by planning and literature review.
2. Collecting data by observing, interviewing, and quantitative scale based on
the literature review.
3. Analyze and interpreting data, reflect
what may match with the literature
and what doesnt, perhaps because
the contextual event, politic condition or
economic changes.
4. Evaluation of those changes through
further data collection.
5. Take action, plan the awareness strategy.
Team will also give inform consent to participant verbally, with the educational
background consideration of Pari Islands
citizen.

Some of the technical guidance for Biology Team in doing this public research
through interviewing and observing are:
1. Take an inform consent first. We
have to ensure that the participant
knows that they are being involved
in a research that will not harm
them, they can resign from the interview anytime, and they know
that their answer will be included in
our analysis.
2. The main aim of the current public
action research is dig for the
awareness of marine conservation
among Pari Islands people, including fisherman to domestic wife, then
formulate an awareness strategy.
3. Well do interview with general
guideline, means that there is an
indicator checklist to be checked
but you can ask it randomly and
probe more. Probe here means
that you ask more based on the
participants previous answer. Try
to avoid close-ended question and
too much questioning why. That
way of asking will make our participants asking themselves, Am I doing something wrong?

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4. The sampling method of this current

study is homogeny sampling used
in qualitative research, means that
we search for a limited numbers of
participants that share same characteristic. Author decided the criteria of Pari Islands citizen, 20-60
years old (productive ages), and
same proportion between males
and females are required in order
to generalize the result from the
study.
5. Being empathic, means that any answer from citizen must be accepted by team unconditionally.
Rogers (1975) defined the concept
of empathy in a simple description:
empathy occurs when you appreciate what your participants experiences feels to them. You are
less empathy when you understand what your participants say
from a detached, objective point of
view. You are showing nonempathic when you understand
what your participants say but not
the way they feel. The modality of
good interviewer are only eyes to
observe, ears to listen, and mouth
to probe more.

6. Be an objective observer, list only

behavior that appear, not interpretation. Example, descriptive behavior:
she smiles at me, and laugh after I
tell her joke. Interpretation: she likes
my joke. Write down the descriptive
behavior in report, not interpretation.
7. Interview must be planned by developing a set of questions and has
been tested before. Build a good
rapport with the respondents (The
Alberta Teachers' Association,
2000).
8. Observation is very effective when
combined with other data-collection,
for triangulation check of interview.
The Alberta Teachers' Association
(2000) suggested before doing observation, develop an observation
plan and indicator template and
preferable to take it with a colleague (inter rater).
9. The key of successful interview and
observation are practice and a
proper preparation.

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The universe would be incomplete without men, but it

would also be incomplete without the smallest
transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our
conceitful eyes and knowledge.
[John Muir]

Part III
Next Action Plan

Intervention Strategy
Team will be only formulating the strategy after get the data analysis of the Action
Research. Basically, what environmental organization should do are some psychosocial processes in assisting the society towards their areas conservation
(Deam & Bush, 2007):
1. Problem analysis, finding the main problem among Pari Islands citizens that
correlates with the conservation issue.
2. Influencing decision making, build a strong awareness that will be included as
citizens consideration in making any decision correlated with the environment.
3. Inter organizational relationship, build link to local societies.
4. Community participation, actively involving societies activities.
5. Knowledge transfer, as information and experience are shaping human value
towards nature, knowledge transfer is the most important thing to do.
Intervention strategy will depend on any finding of the Action Research, so it is important to analyze accurately the Action Researchs result, and then reformulate
the next action plan.
Picture 3.1
Perawan Beach is currently visited by
almost 3,000 tourists every weekend.

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Appendix I: CNS Scale

3 of 14 scales in CNS, developed by Mayer and Frantz (2004).

Appendix II: References

Agardy, T. S. (1997). Marine Protected Areas and Ocean Conservation.
Texas: Academic Press.
Deam, J. H., & Bush, R. A. (2007). A Community psychology view of environmental organization processes. American Journal of Commmunity
Psychology, 40, 146-166. doi:10.1007/s10464-007-9123-2
Greenpeace. (2012). Our Blue Planet. Jakarta: Greenpeace.
Hunter, M. L., & Gibbs, J. P. (2007). Fundamentals of Conservation Biology.
Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Knetsch, J. L. (1997). Reference States, Fairness, and Choice of Measure
to Value Environmental Changes. In M. H. Bazerman, D. M. Messick,
A. E. Tenbrunsel, & K. A. Wade-Benzoni, Environment, Ethics, and Behavior (pp. 13-31). San Fransisco: New Lexington Press.
Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and
There. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mayer, F. S., & Frantz, C. M. (2004). The connectedness to nature scale: A
measure of individuals feeling in community with nature. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 24, 503-515.
Miller, A. (1999). Environmental Problem Solving: Psychological Barriers to
Adaptive Change. New York: Springer.
Rogers, C. (1975). Empathic: An Unappreciated Way of Being. The Counseling Psychologist, 5, 2-10.
Somekh, B. (2006). Action Research: a Methodology for Change and Development. New York: Open University Press.
Tempo. (1978, Oktober 28). Hewan Juga Punya Hak Asasi. Jakarta:
Tempo.
The Alberta Teachers' Association. (2000). Action Research Guide for Alberta Teachers. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: ATA.
Tikka, P. M., Kuitunen, M. T., & Tynys, S. M. (2000). Effects of educational
background on students' attitudes, activity levels, and knowledge
concerning the environment. The Journal of Environmental Education,
31(3), 12-19.

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Authors Contact
Puspita Insan Kamil
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia
Social Psychology Concentration
puspita93@rocketmail.com
Puspita Insan Kamil
+62 856 971 330 41